JANUARY 24, 2005

Jordan sells to Midland

Jordan Grand Prix will compete in the 2005 FIA Formula 1 World Championship with cars to be known as the Jordan-Toyota EJ15s. Eddie Jordan will stay involved with the team and will be spending his time working on commercial and sponsorship matters but the team will be owned by the Midland group from Russia and will become known as Midland F1 at the end of the year.

"I spoke to a number of interested parties in recent months and these are absolutely the right people," said Jordan. "They are totally committed and as we look to the future, we will see this team return to the competitiveness we have proved we are capable of.Ê The sport and the required resources have changed and this deal provides the team with the security and strength it needs."

Jordan praised everyone when announcing the deal.

Jordan finished ninth out of the 10 in 2004 and the team was scrambling to survive by the end of the year. It was fotunate that Toyota came the team's aid to replace Ford as an engine supplier.

The team, which been in F1 since 1991, won a handful of races the first with Damon Hill at Spa in 1998. In 1999 Heinz-Harald Frentzen won twice and the team finished third in the Constructors' title but that was the high point and the team drifted backwards in the years that followed, although it enjoyed a brief (and surprising) moment of glory when Giancarlo Fisichella gave the team its last win in Brazil in 2003 when he was in the right place at the right time when the race was stopped because of a series of accidents.

Eddie Jordan has been a colourful character in the F1 paddock and there is no doubt that Jordan may want to keep up his profile in the years ahead. There has been some talk of some kind of role as an F1 ambassador but we will have to see whether or not that develops into anything.